Urban Canyon Apartments

Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig

URBAN CANYON APARTMENTS

Common Practice + Studio AAAN

STRUCTURE ENGINEERS
CAE / Iv-Groep

GENERAL CONTRACTOR
Ten Brinke Bouw

MANUFACTURERS
Aliplast, Fórmica, Mosa, SAB profiles, Steenhandel Gelsing, Thyssen-Krupp

MASTERPLAN AND ARCHITECTURE (BLACK AND RED BUILDING)
Jurriën van Duijkeren, Inara Nevskaya, Hilbrand Wanders

PROGRAM/USE/BUILDING FUNCTION
Residential (39 medium-rent apartments of a total of 64 apartments in masterplan), Communal space for neighbourhood organisation, Collective bicycle storage

PHOTOGRAPHS
Max Hart Nibbrig

AREA
5800 m2

AREA COURTYARD
350 m2

YEAR
2022

LOCATION
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

CATEGORY
Residence

Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig

In the new urban district on Amsterdam’s Oostenburgereiland, a compact residential ensemble was realized on an exceptionally narrow plot along the blind side wall of a high parking building.

Common Practice and Studio AAAN made the masterplan with 64 dwellings around a striking courtyard and designed two apartment buildings with special mid-rent housing, in which as many collective and private spaces as possible have a relationship with the serene courtyard.

Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig
Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig
Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig

Within the complex conditions, the plan seeks to find a human scale and a special living experience with various architectural interventions.

The mass is divided into four buildings, each with its own entrance hall, typology and character, and at the same time united at the rear around the shared courtyard.

The rational composition of grid facades, referring to the industrial past of the area, is differentiated at street level: a plinth with high windows, street-oriented homes, a corner-shop-like community room, and a series of tall gates with vistas to a hidden inner world.

Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig
Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig
Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig

The entrance halls to the apartments and collective bicycle storage are located in the gateways and form a continuous urban interior together with the courtyard.

The soft undulating plinth continues throughout and makes a connection to the monumental side facade of the garage.

This way, the “Urban Canyon” is not only a functional void, providing additional daylight to the dwellings but also a characteristic meeting place that occasionally reveals itself to the street and plays a part in the daily routine of the residents.

Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig
Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig
Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig

Within their modest size, the apartments offer a degree of flexibility and spaciousness that makes them feel larger than they really are.

An additional sliding door to connect sleeping and living spaces during the day. Additional “half rooms” at the rear can serve as home offices, guest rooms, or baby rooms. Corner windows and transparent loggias allow diagonal views along the front and rear facades, to both the lively city and the mysterious courtyard.

Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig
Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig

The collaboration between the Amsterdam and Rotterdam-based architecture firms Common Practice and Studio AAAN came about after winning a competition for young architects. Both firms believe strongly in the significance of the in-between as a place where the private, collective, and public overlap.

For this project, they collaborated from concept and masterplan to the elaboration of the typology and materialization. MIX architectuur designed the parking garage and two buildings with condominiums in the block. Maarten Heijkamp was asked to create artwork for the wall of the courtyard.

Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig
Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig


Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig
Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig
Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig
Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig
Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig
Urban Canyon Apartments
© Max Hart Nibbrig



Urban Canyon Apartments
Plan A - Ground floor
Urban Canyon Apartments
Plan A - Standard
Urban Canyon Apartments
Plan C - Ground floor
Urban Canyon Apartments
Plan C - Standard


Urban Canyon Apartments
Situation 1.5000
Urban Canyon Apartments
Situation 1.5000
Urban Canyon Apartments
Axonometric